As I mentioned in earlier threads, a well-to-do member of my family did almost all the research back in the 1930's...got me to Old James in Londonderry back in the early 1700's. They seem to have recently redone the website that contained the information and shaved it down by removing all of the fun stuff like the spurious stories and speculaton...damn shame.

Anyway, they also included this...I'm sure that some of you have seen it before but it's apropro:

THE THIRTEEN COMMANDMENTS FOR NAMES

From George Horton

A "Tongue-In-Cheek" viewpoint of a family researcher.

(1) Thou shalt name your male children: James, John, Joseph, Josiah, Abel, Richard, Thomas, William.

(2) Thou shalt name your female children: Elizabeth, Mary, Martha, Maria, Sarah, Ida, Virginia, May.

(3) Thou shalt leave No trace of your female children.

(4) Thou shalt, after naming your children from the above lists, call them by strange nicknames such as: Ike, Eli, Polly, Dolly, Sukey, --- making them difficult to trace.

(5) Thou shalt Not use any middle names on any legal documents or census reports, and only where necessary, you may use only initials on legal documents.

(6) Thou shalt learn to sign all documents illegibly so that your surname can be spelled, or mis-spelled, in various ways: Hicks, Hick, Hix, Hixe, Hucks, Kicks, or Robinson, Robertson, Robison, Roberson, Robuson, Robson, Dobson.

(7) Thou shalt, after no more than 3 generations, make sure that all family records are lost, misplace, burned in a courthouse fire, or buried so that No future trace of them can be found.

(8) Thou shalt propagate misleading legends, rumors, and vague innuendo regarding your place of origin:

(A) You may have come from: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales...or Iran.

You may have American Indian ancestry of the _____ tribe...

(C) You may have descended from one of three brothers that came over from ____.

(9) Thou shalt leave No cemetery records, or headstones with legible names.

(10) Thou shalt leave No family Bible with records of birth, marriages, or deaths.

(11) Thou shalt Always flip thy name around. If born James Albert, thou must make all the rest of thy records in the names of Albert, AJ, JA, AL, Bert, Bart, or Alfred.

(12) Thou must also flip thy parents' names when making reference to them, although "Unknown" or a blank line is an acceptable alternative.

(13) Thou shalt name at least 5 generations of males and dozens of their cousins with identical names in order to totally confuse researchers.

Best

AA